WNMU graduates 400 students

Four hundred students took the stage Friday afternoon at Western New Mexico’s University’s Old James Stadium for the Spring 2017 commencement ceremony.

Keynote speaker Cody Willard is a Roswell native who grew up in Ruidoso and headed to New York City after graduating from UNM. There, he worked as a kennel boy, Starbucks barista, and gopher, eventually finding success as a stockbroker, analyst, and hedge fund manager, who became a Fox Business anchor.

He told the students that there may not be a defining moment in their life when they know what they want to do.

“There will not be a moment in your life when you know what the next step is,” he said. “It’s about what you do day-to-day — when you show up every day with passion.”

Don’t let the attitudes of others interfere with your own, he said.

“You run into a lot of cynicism — people who have just checked out, co-workers — you have to be the one who shows up every day with passion.”

Quoting Led Zeppelin, he said, “There’s always time to change the path you are on.”

Think about who is giving you advice, he said, and befriend people who are not like you.

“Muslims, Mexican immigrants, any immigrant you meet will have a perspective that you don’t have.”

That will enrich your life, he said. Lastly, family is the only permanent thing in life.

“I might tear up a bit here,” he said “I have a daughter who just got of the hospital. So, do the right thing by your company, do the right thing by your peers, and remember, do the right thing by your family.”

In her speech, Student Body President Claudia Osuna Ochoa told her fellow students not to let fear prevent them from pursuing their dreams.

“Don’t let fear or insecurities stop you from doing things you want to do,” she said. “Life is too short to let fear make decisions for you.”

She thanked her parents, who came from Mexico to witness her special moment.

At WNMU, she said, she found another kind of home.

“WNMU is a place where you can feel a part of something, where you belong to something. I have to admit, even though I don’t like the president of this country,” to cheers from her fellow graduates, “this country has given me so much opportunity. I can say with pride — We made it! Go Mustangs!”